Clinical Evaluation of the Er,Cr:YSGG Laser Therapy in the Treatment of Denture-Related Traumatic Ulcerations: A Randomized Controlled Clinical Study

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of Er,Cr:YSGG laser irradiation in reducing pain and on healing rate of traumatic ulcerations (TU) during a 2-week period after placement of new complete dentures. Background data: Denture-related TU are painful, and result in patient discomfort. Lasers are used in the treatment of different kinds of mucosal lesions; however, there are no published data available concerning the clinical outcome of the use of laser therapy in the treatment of TU. Materials and methods: Thirty edentulous patients with newly fabricated complete dentures who subsequently developed one or more pairs of TU participated in this study. For each patient, ulcerations were randomly assigned to the test and control groups. In the test group, ulcerations were irradiated with Er,Cr:YSGG laser. In the control group, the same laser without laser emission was used. Pain was assessed with a visual analog scale (VAS). Healing of ulcerations (HU) was graded by a clinician. Results: In the test group, laser irradiation provided significantly reduced pain immediately after treatment, and provided a significant healing effect 1 day after treatment, and these effects were maintained throughout the study. In the control group, baseline VAS scores were not statistically significant at baseline and 1 day after treatment, and HU scores were statistically significant 3, 7, and 14 days after treatment. Intergroup comparisons revealed that the differences in VAS and HU scores were statistically significant for all time periods after treatment, except for day 14. Conclusions: Based on these findings, it may be concluded that Er,Cr:YSGG laser is effective in the treatment of TU.